Noticed a problem yesturday. I had driven my car for about 40 minutes to see someone. An hour later I go back to it, sitting there gleaming in the rain, windows clear etc. I open the door, get in, shut door, front windscreen immediately gets massive condensation that took me 10 mins of running the heater on full blast to get rid of. I notice this happens quite a lot - any ideas?
Wierd thing I noticed
- Thread starter 86JR
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Man of Honour
Use A/C - it'll take about 30s to clear then.
If not think about it, you breathe, there's humidity in the air, and then you're not allowing any airflow, with the temperature and humidity difference inside and out of the car you'll get a build up.
It happens on all cars if the atmospheric conditions are set up for it.
If not think about it, you breathe, there's humidity in the air, and then you're not allowing any airflow, with the temperature and humidity difference inside and out of the car you'll get a build up.
It happens on all cars if the atmospheric conditions are set up for it.
I do use AC, my car has twin zone climate control and the AC is always on - it takes 10 mins, I also notice that when it is 10 degC outside and the AC is on 20degC it still blows cold air instead of warm. My other car was the opposite, only LO blew cold air, even if it was 20degC outside, 16degC on the a/c was hot air!
Man of Honour
Well there must be something wrong with your A/C or some trapped humidity somewhere if there's THAT much condensation. 10 minutes is a very long time to demist a window. Or you're not using it correctly.
Have you measured the ambient air temperature in the car?
Just because it is 10C outside and you set the A/C to 20C it doesn't mean the car is at 10C inside.
It could be say 24C so needs cold air to bring it down to the 20C you set.
Just a thought.
My GTR had so much heat coming through the exhaust/gearbox tunnel, enough to heat up cold drinks in the cup holder and keep hot ones hot!
Had to run the A/C even in the winter time to keep the ambient temperatures down.
I also would run with the air blowing on the windscreen rather than passenger vents to keep it from misting up.
Soldato
Your climate control should have a button for 'max windscreen' or similar - this will blast warm air conditioned air onto the windscreen which will clear any inside condensation in about 5 seconds flat.
If this doesn't happen then either you're doing it wrong, your air conditioning isn't working, or it's below about 4 degrees outside which will cause the AC not to activate to avoid freezing up the condenser.
If it's raining outside it's quite easy to transfer this moisture into the car but the air con and climate control should keep the windows clear.
If this doesn't happen then either you're doing it wrong, your air conditioning isn't working, or it's below about 4 degrees outside which will cause the AC not to activate to avoid freezing up the condenser.
If it's raining outside it's quite easy to transfer this moisture into the car but the air con and climate control should keep the windows clear.
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That is what I use.
Bottom left button -
http://www.vwcruise.com/resources/ss4.jpg
Supposed to take 5 seconds but takes 10 minutes.
Do i need it re-gassed perhaps? Is there any other indicators?
Could be possible I guess. I know TFSI's have somewhere like 900DegC EGT's.
Soldato
Or possibly fixing; it shouldn't really need re-gassing unless it has leaked out.
This, it's an 08 car right? Should not have a problem with the AC gas level.
Tbf though, if the car has water ingress or a blocked evaporator drain then the AC will be almost totally ineffective at clearing the windows. I'd go with this theory, the car shouldn't mist up in the current weather conditions, AC or not.
Soldato
Just a quick question, did you change the pollen filter recently?
I had noticed that when I did mine (it's underneath the windscreen), that I hadn't installed it correctly and thus water was getting in. Whenever the heaters did come on, and without them on, the car would steam up.
I had noticed that when I did mine (it's underneath the windscreen), that I hadn't installed it correctly and thus water was getting in. Whenever the heaters did come on, and without them on, the car would steam up.
Soldato
Checked you have no wet carpets?
Associate
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Try blasting cold air on the screen with your windows down. Always been the fastest way for me other than the quick clear button.
Less than 5s in my Focus. Me thinks you have a broken AC unit. Happened to a few older cars I had, leaked out via a hole in the hose. Cant see an 08 plate car having the same problem but you never know. Most garages do free AC compressor checks to see of there are any leaks, try it?
Soldato
I had a blocked drainage hole in one of my cars that led to getting excessive condensation that took 10 minutes of A/C max window demisting to clear..
I too thought the A/C wasn't working, so had it checked and it was fine, but the obvious tell-tale sign was that using a squeegee to try to clear the condensation showed that it was a considerable amount of water.. Only when they found the blocked drainage hole did the problem go away.
I too thought the A/C wasn't working, so had it checked and it was fine, but the obvious tell-tale sign was that using a squeegee to try to clear the condensation showed that it was a considerable amount of water.. Only when they found the blocked drainage hole did the problem go away.
Associate
Something sounds wrong with your AC because that shouldn't be happening